1998 Cabernet Sauvignon 3.0

TASTING NOTES

The 1998 Cabernet has a dense, opaque purple color and offers lots of black cherry, bitter chocolate and cassis-like fruit. Sophisticated and elegant with a rich texture and finish, this wine is testimony to the power of our hillside vineyards in a cooler and wetter vintage to produce a remarkably beautiful and age-worthy wine.

RATINGS

Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate (Dec. 2000) - 90 points
"The outstanding 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon, produced from an extremely small crop, is an example of what the Napa Cabernet Sauvignon producers are jokingly saying is "another fine wine from a bad vintage." A rich, full-bodied, dense effort on a fast evolutionary track, the 1998 is loaded with chocolatey, black cherry, and cassis fruit, an open-knit, sexy, expansive texture, outstanding concentration and purity, low acidity, and a fat, chewy finish."

VINEYARD NOTES

Seavey's ninth estate-produced Cabernet, the 1998, was made from grapes that came from vines planted in several different locations of the south-facing hillside vineyard. The 1998 growing season was a challenge because of a cooler and wetter than normal spring and summer, followed by rain in late September. Rather than rush to pick, we waited until October 14th to begin harvesting and did not finish until November 4th. The Cabernet grapes were harvested at an average Brix of 24 degrees.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Winemaking style followed classic Bordeaux methods. Harvested at an average Brix of 24 degrees, the juice remained in contact with the skins for an average of 21 days and thereafter the wine underwent malolactic fermentation and was aged in French oak barrels (40% new oak). Bottling took place on April 27, 2000.